Rough Draft of a Resolution on Proletarian Culture[2]

Written:Written October 9, 1920Published:First published in 1945 inLenin Miscellany XXXV.

      Printed from the shorthand record.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      2nd English Printing,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 42,

      page217b.Translated:Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:D. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2003).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1.Notspecial ideas, but Marxism.

2.Nottheinventionof a new proletarian culture,
but thedevelopmentof the best models, traditions and results of
theexistingculture,from the point of viewof the
Marxist world outlook and the conditions of life and struggle of the
proletariat in the period of its dictatorship.

3.Notapart from the People’s Commissariat for Education,
but as part of it, since the R.C.P. + Commissariat for Education
= σ Proletcult.

4.Proletcult’scloselink with and subordination
to the Commissariat for Education.

5.No...[1]Notes[1]Herethe manuscript breaks off.—Ed.[2]Leninwrote this at a meeting of the Politbureau on October 9, 1920,
when the question of drafting a resolution for the Proletcult congress was
discussed. Lenin’s rough draft contains the main theses of hisDraft Resolution on Proletarian Culturewritten on the
eve, October 8.Proletcult(Proletarian Culture)—a cultural
 and educational organisation which arose in September 1917 as an
 independent workers’ organisation. Proletcult continued to uphold its
 "independence" after the October Revolution, thus setting itself in
 opposition to the proletarian state. It shunned the leadership of the
 Communist Party and insisted on keeping its bodies independent from the
 Soviet authorities, notably the People’s Commissariat for Education, lead
 by A. Lunacharsky. Its members virtually denied the cultural legacy of the
 past, shirked the tasks of cultural and, educational work among the
 masses, and, by isolating themselves from life, aimed at creating a
 special “proletarian culture” by “laboratory methods”. Bogdanov,
 Proletcult’s c.hief ideologist, paid lip-service to Marxism, but actually
 expounded subjective idealism, Machism. Proletcult had a mixed
 membership. In addition to bourgeois intellectuals, who held leading
 positions in many of its organisations, the membership included young
 workers who sincerely wished to promote cultural progress in the Soviet
 state. See Leon Trotsky’s 1923 essay on the concept of “proletarian
 culture” in hisWhat
 Is Proletarian Culture, and Is It Possible?TheCommunist Party came out strongly against the
separatist tendencies of Proletcult. In October 1920 Lenin raised the
question of Proletcult before the Politbureau of the Central
Committee. Following the latter’s decision based on Lenin’s draft, the
Chief Committee for Political Education drafted instructions governing the
relations between Proletcult and the Commissariat for Education. These
instructions were endorsed by the plenary meeting of the Central Committee
on November 10, 1920.In1932 Proletcult ceased to exist

[was suppressed by the Stalinist regime—MIA Ed.].

[1]Herethe manuscript breaks off.—Ed.

[2]Leninwrote this at a meeting of the Politbureau on October 9, 1920,
when the question of drafting a resolution for the Proletcult congress was
discussed. Lenin’s rough draft contains the main theses of hisDraft Resolution on Proletarian Culturewritten on the
eve, October 8.

Proletcult(Proletarian Culture)—a cultural
 and educational organisation which arose in September 1917 as an
 independent workers’ organisation. Proletcult continued to uphold its
 "independence" after the October Revolution, thus setting itself in
 opposition to the proletarian state. It shunned the leadership of the
 Communist Party and insisted on keeping its bodies independent from the
 Soviet authorities, notably the People’s Commissariat for Education, lead
 by A. Lunacharsky. Its members virtually denied the cultural legacy of the
 past, shirked the tasks of cultural and, educational work among the
 masses, and, by isolating themselves from life, aimed at creating a
 special “proletarian culture” by “laboratory methods”. Bogdanov,
 Proletcult’s c.hief ideologist, paid lip-service to Marxism, but actually
 expounded subjective idealism, Machism. Proletcult had a mixed
 membership. In addition to bourgeois intellectuals, who held leading
 positions in many of its organisations, the membership included young
 workers who sincerely wished to promote cultural progress in the Soviet
 state. See Leon Trotsky’s 1923 essay on the concept of “proletarian
 culture” in hisWhat
 Is Proletarian Culture, and Is It Possible?

TheCommunist Party came out strongly against the
separatist tendencies of Proletcult. In October 1920 Lenin raised the
question of Proletcult before the Politbureau of the Central
Committee. Following the latter’s decision based on Lenin’s draft, the
Chief Committee for Political Education drafted instructions governing the
relations between Proletcult and the Commissariat for Education. These
instructions were endorsed by the plenary meeting of the Central Committee
on November 10, 1920.

In1932 Proletcult ceased to exist

[was suppressed by the Stalinist regime—MIA Ed.].